Fall had always been Kai Morales' favorite season.
He loved the crisp sound when he stepped on fallen leaves, the slight chill in the air, the dark colors, and most importantly, Halloween.
It was also the season when Westchester's forest felt the most like home. It was ironic, how a place that used to cause him so much grief became one of the only places where he felt truly at home.
The trees had been his friends. He knew how old they were, how deep their roots went, how healthy they were. He couldn't remember any of it, but the thought still gave Kai some comfort.
The wind kissed Kai's cheeks as he strode. He shouldn't have been walking, especially not through the woods. He had woken up with a numb feeling in his legs and almost fell over as soon as he stood up from his bed. Luckily, Noah had been there to catch him. Noah always seemed to be there to catch him. It had been a while since that had last happened and it caused him to almost have a panic attack. With the urge of panic still lingering in his chest, Noah took him to a spot he knew would help calm Kai down.
Recovering from being a ghost sucked.
Noah's presence behind Kai as he walked helped soothe some of the panic. He looked at every tree as he passed by. A smile fell on his lips at the familiarity of a particular tree. Kai didn't remember much from his time as a ghost, but he remembered that tree. He remembered what made it so special. It had been a twin, a tree that had been a perfect pair to another, but it was chopped down by a lumberjack long ago. Kai assumed the ghost version of him had connected to the lost twin aspect of it.
He still hadn't grasped if it was because of him and his twin sister, or Noah, though.
Kai stopped in front of it, his eyes lingering on the drawing across its trunk. It was messy and imperfect, but the emotion Kai had felt when he drew it was anything but that. There were two stick figures, one a ghost and the other a human with the word 'LOVE' carved beneath the two.
It also had been the spot where Kai and Noah had their first kiss after Kai's resurrection. That alone made it Kai's second-favorite spot in the world, the first being Noah's arms.
Twigs snapped as Noah's shoulder brushed Kai's. The smell of smoke filled the air.
"I knew this is where you would go," Noah commented, cigarette in mouth, but Kai didn't miss the way his eyes softened.
"I'm nothing if not predictable." A teasing smile formed on Kai's lips as he nudged his boyfriend. "Besides, you love it more than I do."
"Yeah, I could say it holds a few of my favorite memories."
"Oh, yeah? Which ones?"
Noah's ears turned pink as he looked down at his boots. Kai loved it when Noah got flustered and tried to cause it as often as possible. "You know... when you drew it, the kiss we shared here, all the conversations we've had."
"I don't think you would've admitted to that stuff five years ago," Kai said thoughtfully as he sat down on the stump. Something prickly poked at Kai's thigh. He sat up, looking in the direction the feeling had come from.
It was a pinecone. Kai picked it up, wanting to start crushing it just for the sake of it, but he was struck with the weirdest urge to examine it instead.
The pinecone was jagged and sticky, with nice rounded edges that made Kai believe it would be the perfect gift for Noah.
Why would this be the perfect gift for Noah? Kai asked himself, scrunching his eyebrows in confusion.
"Your ghost years left me with a lot of time to think about all the things I wanted to tell you. I'm never keeping anything to myself again," Noah explained and sat down, too.
"See, that's how I know you've changed. You were never this much of a romantic."
Noah snorted and took another drag of his cigarette.
Kai was suddenly overtaken by a memory. Noah was smoking, Kai was chasing a bird, only to find a pinecone similar to the one in his hand. He gave it to Noah, calling it a present. Noah said he would cherish it felt his cheeks heat and held the pinecone out to Noah, the vague memory of Noah's words driving Kai to want to relive it in full conciseness.
"A gift for you," Kai meant to say it as a joke, but it came out shakily. His cheeks were turning redder by the second.
A small smile crept onto Noah's face. He stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it aside, taking the pinecone from Kai. His expression suggested that he might have been thinking of the same memory as Kai. Kai hoped so.
Noah grabbed Kai's hand and kissed the top of it. Kai could've sworn he felt his nose turn red, perhaps the rest of his face, too. "Are you okay to walk back to the car?" Noah asked, "I want to show you something."
Hands intertwined, Noah led Kai to his bedroom in the apartment they shared.
Noah pushed the door open quickly, making the sign hung up clang loudly (Kai had strung up a sign on the door that said "Five stars, would sleep here again" when Noah had been sleeping. Noah had not been pleased when he woke up but made no effort to take it down). Noah bent down on his knees and reached for something under his bed. He laid a small, vintage wooden box that resembled a chest on top of the bed.
"Where did you get that?" Kai asked. Noah wasn't the thrifting type.
"I stole it from Connor." He unlatched it, the lid swinging up to reveal a dozen pinecones.
Kai's breath caught in his throat. He reached for the one on top, the shape resembling the one he had handed Noah earlier. The rest of the pinecones in the chest were all different shapes and sizes. Kai suddenly could remember all of them.
"Are these all from me?"
Noah nodded, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I have more, too. You used to give me them all the time." He chuckled a little to himself, a fond expression on his face. "It didn't matter if I was happy or sad, you always had a pinecone for me."
"And you kept them all?"
"Of course. I've kept every gift from you."
Kai dropped the pinecone and threw his arms around Noah's neck, pulling him down into a sweet kiss. His lips tasted like happiness, something Kai never wanted to let go of. Their tongues brushed slightly as Kai tried to pour all of his gratitude into the kiss. Gratitude for Noah saving him, gratitude for him keeping all of his gifts, but most of all, gratitude for Noah loving him so deeply. Kai twirled his finger around a strand of Noah's hair that was sticking out from underneath his beanie.
Kai pulled back just enough that their noses were brushing. "I love you," he said softly, those three words meaning everything to him. He knew Noah knew that, too.
"I love you, too." Noah pulled Kai into another kiss. That second kiss was quicker but still held the same affection as the first.
It felt like home. Kai's favorite place.